Coyne
Aquarium Advice Addict
Ok, so I have a shoal of 7 Pygmy Corys in my QT that Im just about ready to move over to their permanent (for now) home in a 20 Long.
Rewind to a couple weeks ago, when I added a dozen Ghost Shrimp to the 20 Long on a whim. Wasnt really thinking and didnt do any research in advance. I just thought "Inexpensive shrimp for a cleanup crew". Of the twelve, two for sure are dead. Of the remaining ten, I can only actually verify three of them are still alive. Its really difficult to get a better headcount than that because they've made their home in a clump of Pennywort that is attached to some driftwood... Very hard to see them.
So, I did some reading up on Ghost Shrimp recently and discovered that they can be somewhat aggressive and ambush/hunt smaller fish.
Naturally, Im a wee bit concerned about my Pygmy Corys now. They are still quite a bit smaller than the shrimp (about 3/4 the size of the smallest, maybe half the size of the largest).
If there is a bright side, its this:
The shrimp seem to stay in their Pennywort clump home, which is toward the top of the tank. The Corys, I would think, would spend most of their time on the bottom. This said, the driftwood has lots of little nooks and crannies that I think will be irresistible for the Corys, and sooner or later they're likely to make their way up into the Pennywort.
Ive considered re-homing the Ghost Shrimp into a 20 Long Plants only tank that I have, but the thought of trying to catch them without tearing up the whole tank is dreadful. Any tips or tricks to catching shrimp?
Option 2 is to keep the Corys in the QT until theyve grown a bit. The problem here is that I got Pygmies specifically because they are small. Im not sure that they will larger than the shrimp even after they've fully grown. Anybody have any experience with this situation that would like to chime in?
I suppose I could be over-thinking the whole thing... which would lead to option C: Go ahead and add the Corys and hope for the best.
Any information or advice regarding this dilemma would be greatly appreciated.
And, in case somebody wants to factor in additional information, the 20 Long is currently stocked with:
7 Serpae Tetras
9 Gold Tetras
1 Molly
and 4 assorted snails.
(plus 3-10 Ghost shrimp)
Rewind to a couple weeks ago, when I added a dozen Ghost Shrimp to the 20 Long on a whim. Wasnt really thinking and didnt do any research in advance. I just thought "Inexpensive shrimp for a cleanup crew". Of the twelve, two for sure are dead. Of the remaining ten, I can only actually verify three of them are still alive. Its really difficult to get a better headcount than that because they've made their home in a clump of Pennywort that is attached to some driftwood... Very hard to see them.
So, I did some reading up on Ghost Shrimp recently and discovered that they can be somewhat aggressive and ambush/hunt smaller fish.
Naturally, Im a wee bit concerned about my Pygmy Corys now. They are still quite a bit smaller than the shrimp (about 3/4 the size of the smallest, maybe half the size of the largest).
If there is a bright side, its this:
The shrimp seem to stay in their Pennywort clump home, which is toward the top of the tank. The Corys, I would think, would spend most of their time on the bottom. This said, the driftwood has lots of little nooks and crannies that I think will be irresistible for the Corys, and sooner or later they're likely to make their way up into the Pennywort.
Ive considered re-homing the Ghost Shrimp into a 20 Long Plants only tank that I have, but the thought of trying to catch them without tearing up the whole tank is dreadful. Any tips or tricks to catching shrimp?
Option 2 is to keep the Corys in the QT until theyve grown a bit. The problem here is that I got Pygmies specifically because they are small. Im not sure that they will larger than the shrimp even after they've fully grown. Anybody have any experience with this situation that would like to chime in?
I suppose I could be over-thinking the whole thing... which would lead to option C: Go ahead and add the Corys and hope for the best.
Any information or advice regarding this dilemma would be greatly appreciated.
And, in case somebody wants to factor in additional information, the 20 Long is currently stocked with:
7 Serpae Tetras
9 Gold Tetras
1 Molly
and 4 assorted snails.
(plus 3-10 Ghost shrimp)
